‘Granting APRC Permit to Protest for Jammeh’s Return is a Sabotage to TRRC’
Chairman, Gambia Centre for Victims of Human Rights Violations Sheriff Kijera has sent a tough wording letter to the Inspector General of Police on behalf of victims of Yahya Jammeh requesting police not to honor a permit application submitted by the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) party.
”To protest for the return of Yahya Jammeh to the country is a direct sabotage to the ongoing transitional processes, “said Kijera. We object to this application for the time being, as it is considered as a provocative move against victims of Yahya Jammeh and his regime as well as the peace and tranquility of the Country.”
Last week, APRC submitted a permit to the IGP requesting permit to protest for the return of Yahya Jammeh to the country, stressing that Gambia Government failed to honour its agreement with global and regional partners that led to the former President leaving the country for Equatorial Guinea.
However, the request for permit submitted by the APRC did not boil down well with victims of the former President who are mounting every effort to seeing the prosecution of the former President Yahya Jammeh, arguing that applying for permit for a person who commit heinous crimes against his own people is an insult to the transitional justice process currently underway in the country.
“It has come to our notice that the APRC Party/militants are in the process of applying for a permit to stage a protest. We write to express our concerns and the concerns of victims that the application made by the APRC for a permit to stage protest for the return of Yahya Jammeh to the Gambia planned for January 16th, 2020, be put on hold for several reasons, key among them is the interference of the on-going TRRC testimonies and the security of the Country.,” said Sheriff Kijera, Chairman,Gambia Center for Victims of Human Rights Violations (GCVHRV) in a letter sent to the Inspector General of Police.
According to him, it is the position of Gambia Centre for Victims of Human Rights Violations that Yahya Jammeh is a fugitive and that any activity that tend to be in denial of that fact or aimed at provoking victims of his regime must not be entertained, stressing that it is not in the interest of peace and stability in the Gambia to allow a political party that had enabled and in blatant denial of serious human rights violations committed against Gambians and non-Gambians to stage a protest for the return of the very person who had masterminded and committed these violations as evident from the testimonies emerging from the TRRC.
“The purpose of the current transitional justice efforts in the Gambia is to deal with repressive legacies of the APRC regime in order to ensure that it never again happen in the Gambia, thus, the application for permission to protest for the return of Yahya Jammeh is a direct sabotage to the ongoing transitional processes,” Kijera emphasised in the letter to IGP.
He added: “In the light of the above, we urged your office to consider our position and that of the victims and the on-going TRRC, to take adequate measures to deal with disparaging remarks and threats coming from the APRC leadership against witnesses that have testified before the TRRC.”
